{"id":583830,"date":"2026-04-14T15:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/583830\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T15:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:09:07","slug":"bahamas-police-release-michigan-man-questioned-after-wife-disappeared-from-their-boat-bahamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/583830\/","title":{"rendered":"Bahamas police release Michigan man questioned after wife disappeared from their boat | Bahamas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police in the Bahamas<\/a> have released without charges a Michigan man<\/a> who said his wife disappeared after falling overboard from a small boat in waters off the Caribbean island country, authorities said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Brian Hooker, of Onsted in southern Michigan<\/a>, had been in police custody since 8 April \u2013 five days \u2013 after being questioned by authorities.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement freed him after consulting prosecutors, who recommended against filing charges at this time, with investigations under way.<\/p>\n

Brian Hooker told police that Lynette Hooker, 55, fell overboard the night of 4 April as they were traveling in an 8ft (2.4-meter) motorboat from Hope Town to Elbow Cay, a group of small islands on the eastern end of the Bahamas<\/a>. He said Lynette had the boat\u2019s keys, causing the vessel\u2019s engine to shut off and forcing him to paddle ashore.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrong currents subsequently carried her away, and he lost sight of her,\u201d police said in a statement.<\/p>\n

After reaching shore, Brian Hooker alerted someone about his wife\u2019s disappearance early the following day, according to authorities.<\/p>\n

Hooker has denied any wrongdoing, according to his attorney, Terrel Butler. She did not immediately respond to an email on Monday from the Associated Press requesting comment on Brian Hooker\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

The US Coast Guard has opened an investigation separate from the one being conducted by authorities in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n

The couple has been married for more than 20 years and chronicled their adventures sailing around the Caribbean<\/a> on their Sailing Hookers Facebook page. They posted videos in 2023 of buying a sailboat they named Soul Mate in the coastal town of Rockport, Texas, and then embarking on a cruise through the Gulf of Mexico from the port town of Kemah, Texas.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s home in Onsted is about 70 miles (120km) south-west of Detroit.<\/p>\n

Lynette Hooker\u2019s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, told<\/a> NBC News that it is unlikely her mother would \u201cjust fall\u201d off the boat, saying she was an experienced sailor. She noted the couple had been sailing for years on their voyages.<\/p>\n

The couple has had a history of contention, with Brian and Lynette Hooker accusing each other in 2015 of assault, according to a Kentwood, Michigan, police report obtained by NBC.<\/p>\n

Brian Hooker, who was intoxicated and bleeding from the nose, told police his wife had struck him multiple times in the face, the report said. He told officers Lynette also was drunk. She was arrested and spent the night in jail. A warrant was denied because it wasn\u2019t clear \u201cwho started the assault\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police in the Bahamas have released without charges a Michigan man who said his wife disappeared after falling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-583830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}